Highest-paid player on the Houston Rockets in 2023: Fred VanVleet
Fed Vanvleet may have been the biggest free agent signing of the summer. The Houston Rockets swooped the undrafted All-Star away from the Toronto Raptors with a 3-year/$129 million contract that will see him make $40,806,300.
Many have called it a bad contract, and it could be, but the third year is a team option for the Rockets and their young, wild, and free roster was in desperate need of a ball handler with real high-level NBA experience.
Sure, Vanvleet may not be worth nearly $41 million annually, but he does fill a considerable need for the Rockets and at a high level. Do he and their other essential offseason addition Dillon Brooks make the Rockets a playoff team? That’s very unlikely.
But they make them better for now, and maybe that was the main short-term goal.
Highest-paid player on the Indiana Pacers in 2023: Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown, the other second-round pick on this list, is another guard who went out and got a bag this summer. He’ll make $22,000,000 next season and should fit nicely with Tyrese Haliburton and Benedict Mathurin.
Brown had an up-and-down start to his NBA career, initially struggling to find a defined role with the Detroit Pistons and then carving out a niche as a very undersized four with the formerly star-powered Nets.
Last season, he of course played a pivotal role in the Nuggets championship. He’s a basketball Swiss Army Knife, capable of isolating, running pick-and-roll as a ball handler and screener, a good cutter, a spot-up shooter, and more.
His functionality and overall improvement could be enough to help the Indiana Pacers make the play-in places and make them a must-watch League Pass team.